Hawaiian Airlines carries record 11M passengers in 2016

Hawaiian Airlines carries record 11M passengers in 2016

2017 01 11

2017 01 11

Hawaiian Airlines carried a record 11 million passengers in 2016, an increase of 3.5 percent from last year according to traffic statistics released Monday.

The increase in passengers marks 12 continuous years of growth, and follows new routes introduced in 2016, including service between Tokyo's Narita International Airport and Honolulu International Airport launched in July, and between Tokyo's Haneda and Kona International Airport implemented in December.

For the month of December, Hawaiian carried 927,521 passengers, a 2.5 percent increase from the same month last year. Revenue passenger miles jumped 7.5 percent to 1.3 million in December.

The percentage of seating capacity filled for the airline in December was 84.1 percent, a slight increase from 82.5 percent in December last year. For all of 2016, the percentage of seats filled increased 2.7 points to 84.3 percent from last year.

Hawaiian also upgraded its fleet in 2016 with the addition of one A330-200 aircraft, bringing the company’s A330 fleet to 23, and two Boeing B717-200s in November and December for a total of 20 planes of that type.

By the end of 2018, Hawaiian will retire its fleet of Boeing 767 aircraft. The early retirement adds a non-cash impairment charge of approximately $45 million to $50 million.

According to the traffic statistics, Hawaiian also expects to recognize a $5 million non-cash loss in non-operating expense from the translation of its foreign currency denominated bank accounts.